September 2010
31 posts
Religion and Violence
When asked whether Christianity supports violence and is a violent religion, does one answer “Of course — look at the crusades, the multiple blessings of wars, warrior popes, support for capital punishment, corporal punishment, justifications of slavery, world-wide colonialism in the name of conversion to Christianity, the systemic violence of women subjected to men, and more”?...
Charters, Declarations, Manifestos ...
Charter 77 - Czechoslovakia
Charter 88 - Britain
Charter 08 - China
Declaration of the Rights of man and of the Citizen
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Sentiments
Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
A Secular Humanist Declaration
Manifesto of the Communist Party
Manifesto of Surrealism
Intentions (Oscar Wilde’s Modernist Manifesto)
...
WatchWhen the Moors Ruled in Europe
A short documentary describing the glorious rule of Muslim Moors in what is now Spain, remembering a forgotten history.
Obama in Command: The Rolling Stone Interview →
RS: How do you feel about the fact that day after day, there’s this really destructive attack on whatever you propose? Does that bother you? Has it shocked you?
Obama: I don’t think it’s a shock. I had served in the United States Senate; I had seen how the filibuster had become a routine tool to slow things down, as opposed to what it used to be, which was a selective...
“They’ve got you trapped. And you’re gonna die if you don’t...”
– Titanic
Globalization of Africa: the powerful and the... →
A keynote address that Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi, delivered at Columbia University in 2007, discussing globalization of Africa and the MDGs.
“Herd” Mentality? →
Researchers discovered that it takes a minority of just five per cent to influence a crowd’s direction – and that the other 95 per cent follow without realizing it.
“We’ve all been in situations where we get swept along by the crowd,” says Professor Krause of the University of Leeds, Faculty of Biological Sciences. “But what’s interesting about this research is that our participants ended up...
“You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does...”
– John Kenneth “Ken” Galbraith
The Masque of Anarchy →
By Percy Shelley
I
As I lay asleep in Italy There came a voice from over the Sea, And with great power it forth led me To walk in the visions of Poesy.
II
I met Murder on the way - He had a mask like Castlereagh - Very smooth he looked, yet grim; Seven blood-hounds followed him:
III
All were fat; and well they might Be in admirable plight, For one by one, and two by two, He tossed them...
You know it hurts me too
By Karen Dalton
I love you baby Ain’t gonna lie Without you darling I can’t be satisfied If things are going wrong for you You know it hurts me too Run here baby Put your hands on mine I’ve got something to tell you, darling I wanna change your mind If things are going wrong for you You know it hurts me too Hurts me too I love you baby Ain’t gonna lie Without you darling I...
Este es mi deseo
Me quiero ir a Senegal y otros lugares …
Traditional Music: In Senegal, there are a number of different ethnic groups, each of which maintains its own musical traditions. Generally, the most prominent elements of Senegalese music are the griot tradition of praise-and history-singers that feature the kora as pictured, and the complex drumming used to accompany dance. The Wolof are the...
Miss Liberty
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient...
Ethiopia: The "Exit" Generation?
Forty-seven percent of Ethiopia’s total population is under the age of 15, 56 percent is under the age of 20, 64 percent is under the age of 25 and 72 percent is under the age of 30. This means that almost half of Ethiopia’s current population has no personal knowledge of the repressive Derg years that ended in 1991 and three-quarters of the current population has no personal knowledge of the...
Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia - By David... →
Listen
“We will build on the footprints of the past, the foundation of the future.”
– NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Commemorating 9/11.
Sangala: Africa's Redemption or Distortion? →
There have always been some problems with the representation of enemies on 24 (Fox TV Series). We often get a simple construction of good vs. evil. Jack Bauer’s (the show’s hero) reliance on torture to extract information, a technique which almost always seems to work for Bauer but is never effective against him, has had some real world implications. Dahlia Lithwick’s article in...
The Simpsons, 24, and the Law: How Homer Simpson... →
…The most popular theory to posit a relationship between television viewership and attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs is cultivation theory. Cultivation theory hypothesizes that viewers’ perceptions of reality are cultivated in a manner consistent with the programming to which they are exposed.
…It is important to consider the observation that the show 24 serves as the primary frame...
How to Write about Africa →
Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also...
The trouble with [countries like] Nigeria →
“… In Nigeria, in spite of our protestations, there is plenty of work for tribe. Our threatening gestures against it have been premature, half-hearted or plain deceitful. Intelligent and useful discussion of tribalism is very often thwarted by vagueness. But all this self-conscious wish to banish tribe has proved largely futile because a word will stay around as long as there is work...
“Love is like the wild-rose briar;
Friendship is like the holly-tree.
The holly...”
– Emily Brontë
French comedy L'Italien exposes immigrant's... →
Dino Fabrizzi is not what he seems.
To his friends he is an Italian car salesman; successful, popular, on the cusp of promotion, soon to be married.
But at home - to his mother - he is Mourad Ben Saoud, a French Algerian who changed his name to get a job.
Dino is the main character in a new French comedy called L’Italien.
The comedy lifts the lid on a disturbing reality - one in which...
